Iraqi Export + domestic 2000 + 2004

[Galmin]

Iraq's principal export destinations, 2000:

1, United States 60.6%

2, France 8.5%

3, Netherlands 7.4%

4, Italy 5.8%

5, Canada 5.5%



Iraq's principal export destinations, 2004:

1 United States 55.7%

2 Spain 7.8%

3 Japan 7.1%

4 Italy 6.1%

5 Canada 5.6%





Iraqi inflation 2000

5.0



Iraqi inflation 2004

55.0



GDP 2000

33.6



GDP 2004

23.0



2000 account balance (US$m):

1,750



2004 account balance (US$m):

-2,404



Source: the Australian Government

www.dfat.gov.au/geo/fs/iraq.pdf

[ans]

Seems Syria was quite the principal export destination back in Saddam's day



www.nysun.com/article/26514?page_no=1



Who would have thought (besides Nizar Nayuf)?

[DreamTone7]

ans - "Who would have thought (besides Nizar Nayuf)?"



me!





Edit - It's lucky for Deb she didn't make me that bet. I've never had crow, but I bet it wouldn't be considered a delicacy regardless of what country you live in.

Edited by: DreamTone7  at: 1/29/06 6:59

[Galmin]

Well, it is interresting information indeed.



I got some questions:

Why didn't Mr Sada tell anyone about this before his booklaunch?

Mr Sada was deep in Saddams counsel, still he heard about the transfer of alleged WMD from two pilots, who've seen unspecified barrels with warning signs being loaded on planes, as soon as two years after the fact?

As Iraq sent no material after the dam broke in Syria, how could the WMD have been sent without anyone knowing or noticing? It seems espionage isn't worth the paper it's written on these days.



I read that it was close to fantastic that Mr Sada could have reached as high a position as he had, since he is a Christian in a "Christian unfriendly society". Well, that didn't seem to stop Tariq Aziz, another Christian who had reached an even higher position (Deputy Prime Minister and de facto head of government bangs a bit higher than "Second Airforce General") and helped Americans during the first gulf war, too.

If being a Christian and helping Americans during the first gulf war is the ticket for having absolute integrity and telling the absolute truth, we have a conflict of truths here.



Second General in the Airforce? What position did he have during the Halabja CW attack in 1988? Oh I forgot, back then Saddam was our friend fighting Iran.



I am sceptical, it would be sad if this turn out to be just another Falluja finding. There have been enough of them.

Edited by: Galmin  at: 1/29/06 11:42

[HKRockChick]

DT - you're so predictable. I just knew this would bring you out from under your rock ahahahaha. How come you're swallowing everything you read NOW? I thought you didn't believe anything you read in the news? And as usual you miss the point of our discussions. So, now what, invade Syria? Oh, and those bloody Iranians, lets send 200K troops there too.



For sure, some things may have been smuggled across to Syria; but so many people have misled the US intelligence, whilst we have others saying that Iraq did not have the means to fund its programmes...



What if this guy is just lying to pull the hapless chain of US intelligence??? Yes, we sent, no we didn't, maybe we did, but what the hell can you do about it now???

[ans]

. . . and not only by passenger plane, but by ambulance as well:



www.2la.org/syria/iraq-wmd.php



". . . the Iraqi weapons, which were moved to Syria by the help of General Zoul-Himla Chalich are now hidden in three places inside Syria:



First place: a tunnel dug in the mountain close to the Al-Baïdah village, which is roughly two kilometers from Misyaf village. This place is under the 489 Safety cipher Documents' office control .



Second place: the factory of the Air Armed Forces in the village of Tal Sinan, between the town of Hama and Salamiyyah. This factory is under the Air Force control.



Third place: the location of Shinsar, 40 kilometers south of Homs, two kilometers east of the Homs - Damascus road. There are underground tunnels there, controlled by Brigade 661 of the armed air Forces. It is a Brigade of air Patrol. The tunnels are several tens of meters deep.



The weapons were transported in large wooden cases and barrels, under the supervision of the General Zoul-Himla Chalich and the son of his brother Assef, who works at Al-Bachaer company."

[NRKofOver]

Well, apparently one of our allies, Israel, had strong information that the WMD's were moved to Syria prior to our invasion which just begs the question as to why we invaded if we acheived the goal of removing Saddam's abilities of WMD's. We shoulda made a left turn and invaded Syria.



This whole thing stinks of conspiracy to me. What it basically says is that our intelligence is so horrible that we now admit that information regarding WMD's in Iraq was faulty at best which ultimately means we had no idea if they did or didn't have WMD's. But now that we have a couple of guys saying that WMD's were moved to Syria, we have the president apologists saying 'I told you so' when all it does is shine an even more negative light on the competency of the people in charge. The people who support these morons are just as moronic. Our nation is run by a bunch of idiots who believe in absolute (apparently God-appointed) power over their dumb American subjects, but fortunately the dumb American subjects will swallow whatever drivel is spewed by the Emperor and his underlings. Ack.



Please, someone who supports these people, explain to me what they've done that is good for our country and the world.

My music for the disenchanted masses

[ans]

"The people who support these morons are just as moronic. Our nation is run by a bunch of idiots who believe in absolute (apparently God-appointed) power over their dumb American subjects, but fortunately the dumb American subjects will swallow whatever drivel is spewed by the Emperor and his underlings."



"Please, someone who supports these people, explain to me what they've done that is good for our country and the world."



Dude, seriously lol why would any pro-Bush representative respond to your entreaty when you've already judged them as morons? There are lots of forums who would gleefully respond to such name-calling by calling you names right back. But this isn't one of those forums, and I'm happy for that. Any number of conservative forums might overlook your vitriol and attempt to explain Pro-Bush philosophy without being mean, but do you think anyone would even bother given the nastiness of your tone? Short answer: Unlikely. Your questions will remain unanswered.



However, if you post your entreaty on various conservative boards, and you're polite about it, you may receive some surprising responses. Good luck!



I can share this. It's not a response to your request but it's pretty cool, and it holds out hope for the future anyway:





"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."



The American Declaration of Independence (1776).





Peace,

ans

[HKRockChick]

Quote:

---

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

---

I hope the American people see sense in the next elections and that this principles of this text prevails - for ALL of our sakes.

[DreamTone7]

FWIW, I remember CNN announcing the convoy of trucks that the article posted by ans mentions. This convoy was spotted by satellite, and was out of reach of the forces that were already in Iraq. Barrels fitting the discription in ans' article were mentioned in the announcement. Interesting how this was never again mentioned in any of the mass-media...I suppose it would have been counter-productive to their agenda. Point being, WMD was still in Iraq at the time of invasion.

[bitwhys]

Quote:

---

Point being, WMD was still in Iraq at the time of invasion.

---

Sara's timeframe is solidly BEFORE the passing of resolution 1441, let alone the time of the invasion.

[DreamTone7]

Sara spoke of the airlift to Syria...I'm speaking of the convoy of trucks leaving Iraq for Syria at the start of the invasion, that was also mentioned in the article, AFTER troops had already landed. I remember seeing it broadcast myself on CNN as it happened...this article is merely confirmation of what I already knew.



Edit - The only thing we did not know for certain before was what was in that convoy. I suspected it was WMD...and now we know.

Edited by: DreamTone7  at: 2/1/06 6:09

[bitwhys]

you still don't know jack about what was in Iraq at the time of the invasion. all we know for sure is what we already knew, that being what it is you so very much intend to believe until your dying day.

Edited by: bitwhys at: 2/1/06 12:28

[bitwhys]

" Seems Syria was quite the principal export destination back in Saddam's day"



"seems"?



and this justifies the abysmal state of their current economy?



start a rumour and rip the @#%$ out of them?



nice

[ans]

Syria's economy was abysmal long before they accepted Saddam's WMD:



www.meforum.org/article/476



"Syria is one of the last surviving communist countries—communist not formally but in its economic structure. The Ba‘th Party plays a role similar to that of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union and Syria's economy resembles that of Russia before perestroika and glasnost. Its economy is centrally planned, rigid, backward, impoverished, and dilapidated. An all-powerful central planning bureaucracy fixes prices and owns the bulk of industry in the country. As in the Soviet Union, Syria operates under five-year plans that are often formulated two or three years into the plan's five years. Also similar is the fact that the military-political elite ultimately operates the Syrian planning apparatus. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that Syria has the worst array of controls to dismantle of any Mediterranean economy. The central government controls resources, operates large governmental monopolies, serves as the main employer (40 percent of the labor force), controls all of the imports and exports of the country, owns all banks and insurance companies, regulates every financial and most commercial transactions, owns all big industry and much of the small industry, controls ordinary wholesale and retail trade, and controls agricultural markets. The Economist Intelligence Unit describes Syria's financial services as "poor, unsophisticated and a serious obstacle to economic development," and reports that most Syrian businessmen use banks in Lebanon and Cyprus to do business. Nationalized manufacturing continues to be mismanaged and money-losing, with gross over-employment and featherbedding. According to one estimate, in the year 1983 alone, nationalized manufacturers lost 2 billion Syrian pounds.